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AStonesThrow04/26/20254 repliesview on HN

Most commenters here are calling this court case ridiculous, and injustice, but honestly, I think anyone who wants to try this should be gently discouraged and ultimately prevented.

So this guy was a bit mental, and decided that his hobby was to amass a literal "Periodic Table" on display, in his home? Did he have, like, a lot of friends who often dropped by to admire his Table and encourage him in his progress? Or, more likely I suspect, he was a lonely sad sack who would do anything to attract another human being's close interaction.

It also seems that he was amassing a lot of broken junk. Are there, like, photos of his collection, because surely it could not be overly attractive or neat? If he is basically collecting obsolete and unwanted crap then that is a sorry excuse for any "home display".

And yes, perhaps all this material in one place was 100% safe for our hero. Fine. But still, when he has visitors over, can he guarantee their safety too? If a dozen other people got this same "collector's bug" and amassed such a collection, could they also do it 100% safely and legally?

I hope that the outcome from this case is that they can engage a social worker and an agency to help him tip all this rubbish into the bin and find some productive, social hobbies that will enrich him and somehow help with his challenges of mental illness. The last thing a mentally ill person needs is to be isolated with a barely-legal, dangerous hobby. Sheesh.


Replies

jtuple04/27/2025

This isn't really random behavior from some mentally unwell person. There's an entire Reddit community for element collectors:

https://www.reddit.com/r/elementcollection/

And various companies that sell elements in nice display cases to support this hobby.

Sure, it's not your typical model car/train or card collecting hobby, but it's a harmless hobby nonetheless not a cry for help.

antidumbass04/26/2025

Fascinating that you take the court's ruling that he has a "mental illness" at face value.

How would you like it if one of your harmless hobbies was declared illegal overnight and your home raided?

How would you feel if the only way the court lets you go home without a prison sentence is to agree to be declared "mentally unfit"?

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wolfgang4204/26/2025

The item in question, and presumably the rest of his collection, was purchased in the form of an attractive resin display cube containing an absolutely minuscule amount of radioactive material: https://www.luciteria.com/element-cubes/plutonium-for-sale

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nandomrumber04/26/2025

Try not to be a cunt.